DEEPENING “poverty of relationships and identity” is now a reality in the UK, the Church Urban Fund (CUF) has said in its Impact Report 2025, published last week.
“We’ve seen polarised political debate, a nation that seems to be becoming more divided. We’ve witnessed protests with angry voices raised in different views,” the chief executive of the CUF, the Rt Revd Rob Wickham, writes in the foreword to the report. The CUF was established 40 years ago, after the publication of the Faith in the City report, which called for the Church’s clear commitment and positive response to tackling urban poverty and deprivation.
The Impact Report 2025 uses case studies to focus on CUF’s continuing practical work in resourcing churches and community groups to serve some of what it describes as “the most challenged communities and situations”.
One such case study refers to the Growing Good sessions on the theme of justice, which inspired St Barnabas’s, Walthamstow, to convert an unused space into a warm living-room for many community groups, and to advocate for asylum-seekers.
There are now 2472 subscribers to the Growing Good programme. “God’s justice lifts up the oppressed, welcomes outcasts, transforms communities, speaks truth to power,” the report says.
“It is justice that saves, heals and restores. And as Jesus shows, justice begins with an encounter, where we step beyond our comfort zone to hear those overlooked voices, and listen with curiosity and attention.”
A version of the programme for young people is being developed this year.
Last year, CUF added 104 new Places of Welcome venues to its existing 925. Its Near Neighbours scheme helped to set up 106 new partnerships between local organisations, equipped 3089 grass-roots leaders, and mobilised 1000 volunteers, “amplifying the voices of those at the coalface and empowering them to drive change”, the report says.
After the violent riots that broke out in 27 towns and cities in the summer of 2024, during which police vans were set alight, crowds shouted racial abuse, mosques were targeted, and bricks were thrown at hotels housing asylum-seekers, the CUF organised four “Big Conversations”: a series of open discussions between people from across a community.
The report quotes one facilitator of these, Dr Muhammad Khan: “Neighbourhoods are key building blocks in community cohesion. They are constantly faced with new challenges that require continued trust and understanding between people of all sorts of backgrounds.
“In all four Big Conversations, one resounding theme emerged: communities already understand the issues they face and the solutions they need. What they lack is sustained support and resources to turn their ideas into lasting change.”
CUF gave £500,000 under the Windrush Day Grant Scheme to charities, community groups, and councils, to enable people to tell their stories, at an average of £16,667 per recipient. One such project, a drama called Forgotten Heroes, told the story of young Caribbean men who volunteered with the British armed forces.
CUF’s Together Network is responding to the challenges faced by the different regions in England. In the north-east and north-west, it lists the challenges as the “rise of Far-Right, food insecurity, community breakdown, absent fathers, domestic violence, inadequate housing”. Its response is to “amplify grassroots voices, recognise God at work, focus on relationships not structures, work at a regional level”.
During 2025, funds given to the CUF included 11 legacies totalling £222,118 and donations of £209,724 from 978 regular givers and £27,376 from 58 churches. Fund-raising campaigns produced a total of £176,549.
